Letter: America Out of Balance

As you report, former New Hampshire attorney general and current U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte believes General Motors’ sale of cars with faulty ignition switches was a criminal act. Surely Sen. Ayotte knows no one will go to jail for their outrageous behavior despite the loss of life and egregious injury caused. That shouldn’t surprise, considering no one of importance went to jail after the nation’s largest banks committed the fraudulent behavior that caused this country’s worst recession since the Great Depression. Nor did anyone of importance go to jail after the Gulf Coast oil leak, which cost taxpayers enormous expense and created extensive health problems for both human and marine life. One could cite almost daily reports of corporate malfeasance, costing life and resources for which no person pays a price.

While America incarcerates a greater percentage of its population than any other country in the world, you won’t find too many corporate heads among them.

In light of this travesty of justice, one has to wonder, “Why is that?” Despite the Supreme Court’s repeated evisceration of campaign finance laws with the declarations that corporations are people and money is speech, the fact of the matter is money is power, too much power creates undue political influence and undue influence is not the product of simple speech. If money is speech, a few are allowed to yell while everyone else is constrained to whisper. That is a perversion of a free political process. Unrestrained amounts of money are no more simply speech then all human vocalization is song. Too much money in politics is akin to too much salt in your diet. As your doctor will tell you, a little bit of salt is fine but unrestricted amounts can kill you. It’s a question of balance. In America something is out of balance, and it’s a killer.